18 September 2011

Classic Week - 'The Yarn of the Nancy Bell'

How about this! A poem on a piece of kit. 'The Yarn of the Nancy Bell' is a well-known ballad by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert written in 1866 and rejected by the editor of Punch as ‘too cannibalistic.’ It has often been compared to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.' (1798).

You can read the whole poem by clicking on the link, but here's a taste - pardon, the pun...

'And then we murdered the bo'sun tight,And he much resembled pig;Then we wittled free, did the cook and me,On the crew of the captain's gig.'